I want YOU to balance the budget!

This is fun... and disturbing at the same time.

Pick and choose from a number of current proposals on Federal spending and taxes and see the results for the projected 2015 and 2030 deficits.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13/weekinreview/deficits-graphic.html?hp

What I did:
Cur foreign aid in half. If they want roads, let's send US Army Engineers and build roads. If we want to pour money into corruption and graft...
Eliminate earmarks. No-brainer.
Cut pay of civilian federal workers by 5%. Unsure about this one.
Reduce the Federal workforce by 10%. I'd like to know more about what's being cut, but in general I'm in favor.
Cut 250,000 government contractors. As previous item.
Cut aid to states by 5%. Only because there was no option to cut it by 100%. Let each state pay its own way.
Reduce military to pre-Iraq War size and further reduce troops in Asia and Europe. Again I'd like more details, but I'm generally in favor.
Reduce the number of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan to 30,000 by 2013. Only because there was no option to order a complete pull-out effective immediately. Clearly the political leadership has no interest in winning those wars, so it is time to cut our losses.
Enact medical malpractice reform. Ho-yah! Let's have doctors treating patients and not doing needless paperwork.
Increase the medicare eligibility age to 70. This was a toughie, but 100 billion is a good incentive.
Raise the Social Security retirement age to 70. As above. Almost a quarter of a trillion dollars.
Reduce Social Security benefits for those with high incomes. If you've got high income why do you need social security?
Tighten eligibility for disability. Disabled people who still work... am I the only one who sees a problem here?
Allow expiration for income above $250,000 a year (tax cuts). No brainer. If you make over a quarter of a million dollars a year you don't need a tax cut.
Allow expiration for income below $250,000 a year. Again I was unsure, but figured I should pay my share too. Plus, another quarter of a trillion dollars.
Payroll tax: Subject some incomes above $106,000 to tax. Only because there wasn't an option to subject all incomes above $100,000 to tax.
Millionaire's tax on income above $1 million. Again...
My savings come out to 46% from taxes, 54% from spending cuts. I managed to get a surplus in 2015, and cut the 2030 deficit to $18 billion from over $1 trillion.
That was my first pass. I then decided to see what it would take to get that last $18 billion.
After some debate, I chose:
Cap Medicare growth starting in 2013. Note this just ties the maximum rate of increase to GDP growth. I don't think that's the best method, but it is a start.
I run almost $200 billion surplus in 2015 and over half a trillion in 2030.
Chance of this happening: 0. Nada. Snowflake's chance in Hades, excluding the sixth circle.
Oh well.
What would you do?

"Contrail" off California

The Official Words is that it is (probably) a contrail. A full bird colonel has made a statement (nearly 24 hours after the first report) that the matter is under investigation and that it certainly wasn't a non-US launch.

Now, if the matter is still under investigation, how can anyone be sure that it WASN'T someone else? I can see being sure it wasn't a US launch (we counted all our missiles and we've still got them all), or a plane (we examined the video and it clearly is/isn't a plane)...

I am not, as I think all two or three of my loyal readers will accept, a member of the Tinfoil Hat crowd. However, some things bother me about this.

1. That doesn't look like a contrail to me. I've spent most of my life looking up when I hear a loud noise, and quite a bit of it watching things flying overhead. I am not, as previously noted, a rocket scientist, but I know that delta-V = Ve * ln (R). That looks exactly like a rocket/missile launch to me.

2. No one has shown a nice, enhanced frame from that video that shows an airplane. Contrails make it easy to spot aircraft because they point you right where to look. No one has said "it is a contrail - see? You can tell its a 747/C-17/etc."

3. It took WAY too long for the contrail story to pop up. Again, no claims to be a rocket scientist here, but contrails have been photographed and video'ed from every angle known to man. Why does it take the infinite monkeys of the internet nearly 24 hours to come up with a near-match to the image that's a contrail when only hours after the event comparison imagery taken of rockets was being put up that was much closer to the actual video of the event?

Note that I'm not crediting media sources here, but bboards and fora. IMO most reporters couldn't tell the difference between an airplane and a rocket if they were both sitting side by side on the ground in front of them. The internet, however, is full of actual rocket scientists (in addition to a lot of people who claim to be but aren't), pilots, and anti-aircraft specialists. Most of the credible posters I know said "missile" or "rocket" when they first saw the video. All the contrail reports come from 'official' sources (which took far too long to check in), and media outlets.

At this point, I'm leaning towards "missile/rocket" and more than a little upset that we are once again being lied to, probably 'for our own good.'

Missile Launch off California

Um... eek?

http://www.informationdissemination.net/2010/11/mystery-missile-off-west-coast.html

In short, someone launched a missile 35 miles off the West Coast, near Los Angeles.

Now, normally that wouldn't worry me much, but the USN says it isn't theirs.

If they'd just said "no comment" I'd assume it was theirs anyway (they don't call it the "silent service" for nothing) and not worry.

However, a denial... THAT makes me wonder if it actually isn't a USN missile, and THAT really worries me.

I am not a rocket scientist (not yet, anyway), but from the video the missile looks too big for an amateur job - and anyway, why would an amateur launch 35 miles offshore?

I'll be following this story, and if I find anything definite I will post here.

All Hallow's Eve

Got 38 trick-or-treaters last night; I do so like giving candy to children. :-)

Halloween is an odd holiday to me. I like (most of) the costumes, I like the candy (must... resist... candy corn...), I like trick or treating (either giving or receiving), I even like the historical religious background of the holiday. Heck, I'm fond of the tale of Ichabud Crane!

But I'm just not into the horror element. I'm not into gore, or big spiders (REALLY not into spiders, big or little), or fake knives sticking out of fake wounds. Perhaps it is the inner paramedic making itself felt again, though I wasn't into horror long before I was into emergency medicine.

I can't think of a holiday I'm more conflicted about. Christmas? No problems; I don't seek out Santa Claus, but I don't avoid him either. Easter? Must... resist... mini eggs... um... what was I talking about?